thenorphletpaperboy: A Token Woman

thenorphletpaperboy: A Token Woman:      ARKANSAS                                                                      BY  Share if you believe in equal rights for women.            RICHARD MASON            ...

A Token Woman

     ARKANSAS                              

                                       BY

             RICHARD MASON

                             A Token Woman

Well, huh; what is a token woman? Of course, we all know, but we conveniently just ignore the situation when we see boards and commissions as either male only or with a 'token' woman.  Yes, almost all of our boards, commissions, etc are made up of old, white men who either reappoint each other or wait until the old, white governor or old, white mayor appoints another old, white man to fill a vacancy. Yes, and when, low and behold, a token woman is appointed to a board of 15 old, white men, where they can brag, "We have the  woman on our boards." Yes, I know you might say a token woman is better than not having a woman at all, but that doesn't make it right. "That's just the way our political system works" you might say, and you'd be as dead wrong as 'colored rest rooms'. Or you might say, "We can't find any qualified women to serve." Really? If I were a woman, and some old, white man told me, "We couldn't find any qualified women." I'd slap his face halfway to Louisiana. With at least a million women to pick from why can't our old, white governor find one to put on the all old, white man Highway Commission or Game or Fish Commission or...etc...or etc.

I've served on a number of commissions and boards, and from first-hand experience I can assure you an equal number of women on those boards would have improved their function immensely. Actually, there have been several nationwide studies that confirm a commission with a equal representation of women is more effective than a male only board, and while we're at it please explain why a woman can't be paid a salary equal to a man's for doing the same job? Yes, it is discrimination just as much as 'colored rest rooms', but obviously we don't have the guts to stand up and yell "discrimination!" it to our elected representatives.

 Of course, we believe the good old USA leads the world in virtually everything, but we're sorely lacking in gender equality. Western European Nations are head and shoulder ahead of us, and several countries have passed laws mandating equal pay and representation for women.[1] I know you think it would choke a mule to see our government pass a law mandating equal representation on all public corporations, boards, and commissions. Well, we have laws against discrimination in housing, hiring, and a list of other areas of discrimination as long as your arm, so why not make it a law, and have equal representation? Maybe, if our state legislature could quit trying to pick a state book, duck, or dinosaur, they would have time to address discrimination that affects over 50% of the state's population.

 Okay, so the USA is behind Western Europe in gender equality, but how does our state rank nationwide? How about 43rd?  A behind the times country, and we live in a state that is bringing up the rear. Yes, it is[2]  a shame when you look at local commissions and boards with just a token woman, and then it's even more shocking when our old, white Governor continues to foster all male boards. Yes, that's the problem, it's the old, white men who control virtually all the boards, commissions, and an old, white-haired governor. (Yes, I know I've overused 'old, white men' but those rascals are the root cause of gender discrimination.) 

If we want a well-run representative democracy, it’s up to us. We must post the membership of every local and statewide board and commission, and when vacancies come up, nominate and insist women be appointed. It was a hundred years ago when women received the right to vote and their right to vote was bitterly fought by the same type  of old, white men who are opposing  gender equality. Only today, it's more backroom work of old, white men, and only when a list of new appointees are announced or printed in the paper do we realize women have been screwed again, when we see the next Highway Commissioner is a man.

If women were given equal representation and equal pay, our country would have a more representative government. It would increase productivity and efficiency creating thousands of new jobs and improve our quality of life immensely.

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 [1]

 [2]

thenorphletpaperboy: The Uglist Street in Town

thenorphletpaperboy: The Uglist Street in Town:               ARKANSAS                                                   BY                             RICHARD MASON          ...

The Uglist Street in Town

              ARKANSAS

                                                  BY

                            RICHARD MASON

                              The Ugliest Street in Town

Well, just go to your local McDonalds, and you'll usually be there. No, it's not McDonalds that makes the street ugly, it's what's there along the street and what is not there. Yeah, I know that doesn't make much sense, but stay with me, and I'll tell you why it's ugly and why it makes big difference to a town.

Since I mentioned McDonalds; let's start there. We were in a distant state, and decided to stop at McDonalds for our morning cup of coffee. We were downtown, but the main gateway street into town was just a few blocks away, and in a few minutes we were there and sure enough there was good old McDonalds, the familiar sign, and the Golden Arches.  However, instead of a giant sign on a massive pole, there was---believe it or not---a three-foot-tall sign! Which brings us to point one in making your ugliest street less of an eyesore: Your town should have a tough sign ordinance. Just imagine how your ugly street would look if every business had a maximum three foot sign and all the billboards were gone.

 But we're not finished. Next, another ugly street eyesore: The mass of overhead utility lines and poles. Put them underground and save hundreds of thousands of dollars when a drunk knocks down a utility pole and every business along the street shuts down. Of course, minus the overhead utility poles and lines, and you have moved up a notch in making the ugliest street in town look better.

Okay, the street looks better, but we're not through. Every one of these streets usually has another item in common--- huge, blank parking lots, and most of them don't have a speck of green. A progressive city will have an ordinance that requires at least 25% of these parking lots to be green space. Just drive by one of your street’s blank parking lot and visualize how it would look is a quarter of the lot were green space, and of course it can be done without losing a parking place. Yes, planting grass, shrubs, and trees cost money, but according to several Government surveys, retail sales in the adjacent stores will increase by as much as 25% and the customers will perceive the goods offered in the stores are worth more. Of courses, we’ve all seen the big box stores with the blank parking lots try to increase sales by dressing up the front of their building or malls, but without the other items it really is like ‘putting lipstick on a pig.’ Add the 25% greenspace in parking lots to your ugly street, and we're almost there.

But we’re not through with your ugly street yet, and the last item is very likely the most critical one if we are going to change the appearance of a street. It’s time for the city to step in and spend a few dollars. Every city street has right-of-way on either side of the curb that gives the city plenty of room to spend a small amount of money for a big reward, and that's to plant a street tree every 25 feet. Now, if you look down your ugly street and visualize all of the improvement, it’s easy to see how that street can be transformed into an inviting gateway street into your town.

Okay, but why would a city require all of the above? After all, isn’t just beautifying an ugly street really just fluff and wasting money? Absolutely not! These gateway streets are first impression streets, because they are usually the main entryway into a town. A visitor will either have a good first impression or they won’t, strictly based on the appearance of this major street. That’s why states and cities that are growing with new businesses and new residents arriving almost daily have beautiful avenues instead of dismal, ugly streets. The money spent to transform an ugly street will repay a community a hundred times over. So the next time you drive down your town’s ugliest street just think about what someone who just drove into town for the first time would think. If we want more quality jobs, and see our towns and cities grow, the first critical step is to convert our ugliest street in town into a pleasing visual scene instead of letting it stay an eyesore. Trying to recruit new businesses to locate in our empty industrial parks is a waste of time, if our gateway streets continue to look like the entrance to Dogpatch!   

thenorphletpaperboy: Let's Stop the Tree Choppers!

thenorphletpaperboy: Let's Stop the Tree Choppers!:               ARKANSAS                                            BY                                  Richard Mason            ...

Let's Stop the Tree Choppers!

              ARKANSAS

                                          BY

                                Richard Mason

                                Let’s Stop the Tree Choppers

No, I’m not talking about the misguided folks who chop off their crepe myrtle trees; I’m after the big boys who ravage our street trees. These are the big time tree choppers.  They’re the folks we pay (via our electric bill) to come into our towns and cities and mutilate our trees. Yes, I know Entergy will tell you, “We only cut the limbs that could break and fall on power lines during an ice storm.” Oh, my gosh, that sounds as if Entergy is out there working to be sure we don’t lose power. But, we keep losing power almost every time it even rains. What’s up? Are we domed to have power outages every time it clouds up? Yes, we are, if we don’t change the way we distribute power. Since we are the ones who end up paying for all the tree mutilation that Entergy lavishes on us, maybe it’s up to us to tell them to quit doing a never ending job of trimming, and try something that actually works, and by doing it, preserve our urban tree canopy. It’s called “underground utilities.”

Yes, we all know our state doesn’t lead the nation in something like requiring underground electrical service in new subdivisions, or do we have a plan to systemically require a certain amount of our power grid to be placed underground each year. I don’t know our ranking, but I’ll be willing to bet we come out near the bottom.

 Entergy says it would be too expensive. Of course, they frequently forget or minimize the tremendous cost incurred each year by having to go back over roadway after roadway to cut what they cut only a few years ago. Yes, and they don’t give any value to our misery when we put up with those cold nights where we shiver because the power is out. Tree trimming always makes the next trimming job more expensive because the trimmed tree branches grow back more dense, and of course, as we see two lane roads around the state widened, just think of the dollars wasted in having to move the power lines.

If we look back over the past 50 years and consider the hundreds of power outages that resulted from trees or tree limbs falling on power lines, and then total up all the lost economic work time plus giving  the huge inconvenience of miserable customers some value, we would see the value in putting utilities underground. If we had just put a portion of the money spent to trim trees into underground utilities, then today, we could see big areas of our state where tree trimming wasn’t needed, and over the years those areas would save us millions of dollars in tree trimming expense.  

El Dorado, in the core of its Downtown, has underground utilities. The entire city can lose power and most of the time, unless there is an outlying power line outage that serves a station linking up Downtown, our Downtown has power. Yes, it did cost when we put in underground utilities, but considering the saving over the almost 40 years since they were placed underground, it is a certainty  not only did we save hundreds of thousands of dollars in tree-trimming, but millions of dollars in retail and banking wasn’t lost. It has been a money saving solution that should be used across Arkansas.

But it’s more than saving money. Almost every Arkansas town has an entryway street where multiple retail stores and restaurants are located, and virtually all of these towns have overhead                                                                                                                    utilities lining the street. It’s usually the ugliest street in town. Underground utilities and street trees would turn an eyesore into a pleasant gateway into your community.
 So when you see your legislator or power company official urge them to at the very least come up with a plan to eventually put all electrical lines underground. It’s happening in all the first world countries and in the most progressive states in our Nation there are mandates to put electrical lines underground. Instead of being content to bring up the rear again, we should look to the future and have a systemic plan to gradually add underground utilities. Must we always be last?

thenorphletpaperboy: Say Goodbye to the Buffalo National River

thenorphletpaperboy: Say Goodbye to the Buffalo National River:                Arkansas                               By                  Richard Mason               Say Goodbye to the Buffal...